Iii. Western European Art 3. The Art of Spain and Portugal

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Architecture

During the entire period of time we are considering, the northern, Christian half of the Iberian Peninsula was opposed by the southern, Arab half, as an alien and hostile, self-contained world. The young kingdoms of North Germany, Leon, Castile, Navarre and Aragon, had to wage a fierce struggle for their existence, both among themselves and with the Moors. The struggle with the latter gave rise to chivalry. The famous Sid (Rodrigo Diaz of Castile), who conquered in 1094, although only for a time, Valencia, is celebrated in Spanish poetry as the embodiment of all knightly, Christian, national virtues. The followers of Islam in the twelfth century were driven out of Northern Spain, but only in the middle of the twelfth century were they pushed aside to Granada. Of course, the victories of Christians over the admirers of Mahomet were marked on the Spanish land with the construction of more extensive and more magnificent churches than before. At the end of the XI century, Spanish architecture began to rise to a considerable height in the sense of stylishness and splendor of his works. Samples delivered him, as before, the South-French architecture, but sometimes in terms of the Spanish churches were also reflected Lombard and German influence, and in the ornamentation - the influence of the Moorish.

At this time, the basilica with a flat coating has already disappeared from Spanish architecture. The South French vaulted dome, replaced in Spain by the cross vaults of all earlier in the aisles, remained in the main nave of the cathedrals for quite a long time. The cross vault is sometimes found in the dome-shaped form characteristic of the Plantagenet style (see Fig. 164), but often also in its pure Lombard and German form, and not so soon as in France, the semicircular arch ceased to be used for it. here, the archway first gave way to structural parts of the churches.

Fig. 176. The capitals of the columns in the church of sv. Martin in Segovia. By Degio

As one of the purely Spanish peculiarities of the more ancient Romanesque temple construction, it should be indicated by circular-arched galleries (see fig. 79), forming a type of portico on one of the longitudinal sides of the church or even on both sides; another, more recent feature is that the choir, surrounded by a high fence, moves into the longitudinal body and forms, as Yusti put it, a church in a church, the rest of the space is almost reduced to a detour around the choir. The loss of the scenic view from the entrance to the choir is somewhat rewarded for the most part with luxuriously cut domes or towers above the center of the cross.

Among the most ancient of the most significant Romanesque churches in Spain, in which the covering of the middle nave with a vaulted vault, at least, was assumed to be the church of Sv. Milyana in Segovia - the basilica is very simple, with a medium nave separated from the side aisles alternately with pillars and Corinthian columns, with a center cross crowned with a low square tower, and with circular-arched galleries on the longitudinal sides. Among the other Romanesque churches of Segovia, the following should be mentioned: S. Veracruz (1150), a twelve-sided central structure, resembling the domed Jerusalem church erected in a rock; church of sv. Martina (1180), a structure in which the capitals of double columns of its vestibule on the longitudinal side (Fig. 176) are luxuriously ornamented with animal and plant motifs, and the church of San Esteban (1210), with a five-story bell tower not very narrow upwards With circular-arched windows.

Fig. 177. Pretense of the church in Santiago de Compostela. According to Junggendel and Gurlitt

Also to the most ancient churches of Spain, covered with box-shaped arches, belong to San Pedro in Huesca and San Isidoro in León, whose side naves already have cross-vaults. The most magnificent church of this style is the famous cathedral in Santiago de Compostela (fig. 177), which in its plan resembles rather the touristic church of Sts. Martina than on the church of sv. Saturnina in Toulouse. This cathedral is especially noteworthy for the strong development of the choir, equipped with a roundabout and the crown of five chapels. Both the longitudinal hull and the transept are five-nautical. The side aisles are covered with cross vaults, and their empores are half-boxed. Everywhere is dominated by a circular arch, partly elongated in the Moorish genus. Especially beautiful is the three-nave porch, covered with slightly pointed cross vaults and consisting between two towers of the western facade. In this temple, built, probably, by a French architect, Spain has one of the most majestic and fully finished architectural monuments of the 12th century. The oldest churches of Barcelona and Girona are also covered with boxed arches; but in some places, such as, for example, in the beautiful church of Coruna, these vaults are pointed, as in France. One of the most remarkable Romanesque churches is San Vicente in Avila, an alpine city surrounded by well-preserved Romanesque walls with 9 gates and 85 towers. The longitudinal body of this church is already covered with the entire cross vaults, whereas the transept on both sides of the octahedral dome also has a box arch. Curious also in the early Gothic cathedral of Avila is the Romanesque choir, a huge medium semicircle of which, protruding beyond the city wall, is turned into a fortification with trenches and loopholes.

Among the large, fully covered with the cross vaults of the Spanish churches, one of the most significant is the old cathedral in Salamanca. The construction of this church, the arcades of which are pointed, and circular arched windows, lasted from 1120, but was completely completed only in the XIII century. Its cross vaults with ribs are dome-shaped, characteristic of the Plantagenet style. The superstructure above sredokrestiy, turning into a sixteen-sided dome with ribs, both inside and outside, is especially richly divided by circular-arched windows and fake galleries. The monastery church in Toro also has a luxuriously decorated tower above Sredokrestiy. The huge cathedrals in Lleida, Tudela, and Tarragona, built in the 13th century, contain in their architecture the characteristic elements of an early Gothic style - cross ribs and pointed arches. With a consistently conducted system of arches and arched arches, but still without arches butane, the Spanish early Gothic style first appears in the church of the Cistercian monastery in Veruel. Thus, in Spain, the fate of architecture was the same as in France. The ground for the Gothic world style, which reigned here from the middle of the 13th century, was prepared.

The Portuguese architecture of our time is a little different from the Spanish. Do not forget that Portugal only from 1140 became a free kingdom, not dependent on Spain. Of the purely Romanesque churches of Portugal, first of all, it is necessary to point out one structure of the basilic type and one of the central type; both of them, with their thick, jagged walls at the top, look more like a fortress than a church in appearance. The first of these structures is the famous old cathedral (Se Velha) in Coimbra, built in the middle of the XII century; it is a three-nave basilica with pillars, covered with box-shaped vaults, with three parallel oriental semicircular niches and a rib dome over a four-sided tower of the middle cross, decorated inside with small circular-arched galleries. The second is the central church in Tomar, the castle of the Knights of Jesus, built in 1162. The octagonal two-story middle part of this building is surrounded by an octagonal exterior, covered with boxed arches, bypassing the same height as this part. On the contrary, the three-nave church of the hall system in the Cistercian abbey in Alcobaca (consecrated in 1222), with a magnificent crown of chapels behind the double choral detour, gives the impression of already strict early Gothic construction. The dome-shaped cross vaults of its longitudinal body approach directly to Western French architecture (see figs. 155 and 164); but the general character of this church is Burgundy. Here, the Cistercians were the first forerunners of the Gothic style, to whom Portugal owes several buildings that are widely known.

Sculpture and painting

Together with the French architecture, the French monumental plastic also penetrated into Spain. The Spanish artists, who had tried their hand at sculpture, at first did not rise above the level of clumsy and crude attempts; the best works were performed, apparently, by the French. However, scientists, including Passavan and Raczynski, treated the monumental plastic of the Iberian Peninsula too harshly. It would be necessary to study its sources with great attention than it has been done up to now. In the sculptures of capitals of some Spanish galleries cloister XII. bold, often wildly fantastic vivacity. The deciduous ornaments of cloister galleries in the monasteries of San Juan de la Peña in Huesca and San Cugat del Valle near Barcelona are especially rich in animal figures; but the gallery of the cloister at the Tarragona Cathedral (early 13th century), decorated with sculptures at the entrance door of which the Christmas and Adoration of the Magi are sculptured, is more magnificently decorated, while the capitals of its columns are decorated with images such as the burial of mice and cats or cockfighting.

Northern Spanish facade sculpture is extremely diverse. The oldest and most clumsy images of this genus include two paired figures of saints - a frieze with angels playing musical instruments and a frieze with zodiac signs in the church of San Isidoro in Leon, on the sides of the main door and above the entrance. Here, as it were, the frontal style of archaic Greek art revived (see Vol. 1, fig. 269). More freely, in the spirit of antiquizing Provencal plastics of the time in question, the figure of the facade of the church of San Miguel in Estella (Navarre) is rich in figures. The tympanum depicts Christ in glory. The figures of the five archivolts are placed just as in the portal of the Church of Sivre, as if falling. The highly elongated figures of saints on the columns of the pointed portal of the church of Santa Maria la Real in Sangues (in Aragon) reflect the influence of the Chartres school. All these works were performed in the second half of the XII century. The end of this century belongs to the circular-arched portal of the church of San Vicente in Avila, on whose middle post Christ the Almighty is sculptured. Ten very spectacular figures of saints on the columns of the side ledges of the portal are free and lively, although their movements are somewhat constrained. On portals of Spanish churches more often than in France, there is an arrangement of figures on archivolts along radii, or concentric, and they touch their feet to the inner, and their heads to the outer edge of the arch. We find such an arrangement, for example, on the portal of the collegiate church in Toro in Old Castile, as well as on the main portal (Puerta de la Gloria) of the Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela. The master, who built and decorated with sculptures (in 1180) the porch of this cathedral (see fig. 177), was called Maestre Matteo. As this church itself is a copy of the church of sv. Saturnina in Toulouse, and its portal sculpture is close to the Toulouse style. All three of the portal, extending into the porch, form one magnificent sculptural whole, the content of which is the Last Judgment. On the average tympanum Christ is depicted in glory, among the apostles and saints; in the left tympanum is the bliss of the righteous, in the right - the torment of sinners. On the middle pillar of the average portal sculptured patron saint of St.. Jacob Kompostelsky. The side columns are decorated with statues of other saints. Arched figures of the main archivolt - 24 apocalyptic elders. The general character of these magnificent sculptures is Romanesque, but they already show a certain amount of realism inherent in the Gothic style.

In small works of Spanish plastics of the period under consideration, among which gold items stand out, the Moorish influence is reflected more often than in religious sculpture, and Moorish motifs are found. Curious is a large bowl in the church of the abbey of Santo Domingo de Silos in Burgos, made in the third quarter of the XI century; it is decorated with filigree [4] ornaments in the form of wavy lines, chains or in the shape of the letter S around the horseshoe-shaped arches.

In relation to painting, the remains of Romanesque wall paintings discovered in various places in Spain deserve attention. Among the best Spanish church frescoes are the figures of the apostles in the niche of the small Moorish church of Cristo de la Luz in Toledo; but the most complete and interesting of these works are performed between 1180 and 1244. frescoes on the arch of the chapel of San Isidoro in León, transformed into a royal tomb (Royal Pantheon). The scenes of the Gospels and Acts of the Apostles, the signs of the zodiac and the allegorical images of the months of the year, drawn in dark contours and only slightly illuminated, are made in the strict style of the era.

There are quite a few Spanish manuscripts of the Romanesque period, decorated with miniatures. And in these illustrations, Moorish ornamental motifs penetrate Christian art. The horseshoe arch is especially popular. The figures are drawn more awkwardly: arms and legs are disproportionate to each other. As for colors, blue is mostly replaced by violet or magenta, along with which yellow is used. The background is initially white, then colored, often yellow instead of gold, sometimes also striped. In the Psalms of David (manuscript of the Madrid Academy of History), one miniature depicting the battle of the knights with the Moors testifies to the Spanish origin of this manuscript. Written in 1109, the “Commentary of Beath, Presbyter, to the Revelation of the Apostle John,” in the British Museum, contains a large number of miniatures arranged very simply; the figures in them are shapeless, the folds of clothes have the appearance of spiral lines. In the same angular and harsh, almost calligraphic style, the Apocalypse manuscript, which is kept at the Madrid Academy of History, is illustrated, it was first attributed to the 10th century, whereas in fact it was made around 1050. Miniatures, in our opinion, seem to be somewhat more adept Commentary on the Apocalypse ”at the Madrid National Library; and in them, along with especially thick red, brown and green inks, bright lemon yellow is constantly found. The black-contour miniatures of the Bible of 1240, in the library of the Madrid Historical Academy, already have a golden background, but in their drawing the Romanesque style, formed on the soil of the decayed ancient art, is still clearly expressed.